Contents
The physiological development, milk and meat productivity of cattle directly depend on what the animal eats. The diet must be balanced, clearly meet the needs of the individual’s body at a certain stage of her life, and also correspond to her breed. For example, feeding cows of meat breeds will differ significantly from the diet of dairy cows.
How to deal with the variety of feed solutions? To facilitate the task, you can conditionally divide animal feed into classes.
Basic views
These are the classes of animal feed that make up the bulk of the diet – up to 80-90%. But if it is necessary to increase the productivity of the herd, strengthen the immune system, get healthy offspring, then it will be very difficult to do without premixes and concentrates in the diet. Thus, the products of the company “Mustang Technologies of Feeding” allow you to increase milk yield by 2 times, prevent diseases such as ketosis, acidosis, postpartum paresis, etc. It also fully satisfies the needs of cattle in minerals, amino acids and vitamins.
Roughage
They are good suppliers of vegetable fiber, without which the body of cattle will not be able to function normally. These include branch forage, hay, straw and haylage. When harvesting hay, it is desirable to use raw materials from different herbs, cereals (meadow timothy, meadow fescue, bluegrass, couch grass, meadow foxtail, etc.) and legumes (sainfoin, clover, alfalfa) are considered especially valuable. Haylage can be harvested from annuals and perennials, and branches of linden, birch and maple are excellent as branch feed.
Juicy forages
This is another important class of animal feed, which they must be provided with in the required quantity. This is about:
- root crops and tubers, i.e. carrots, sugar beets, pumpkins, potatoes. They contain a lot of dry matter, protein, fiber, sugar and water;
- conventional and combined silos. They are a canned juicy mass, which may contain potato tops, root crops, tubers, edible herbs, etc.
Green feed
This is a method of feeding available in the warm season, provided that the herd is grazing. Forbs, legumes and sedge grasses are easily digested by livestock. They contain vitamins E, K and B, lipids, carbohydrates and proteins.
Additional views
The main classes of animal feed are supplemented by products that are introduced into the diet in limited quantities. For example, the transfer of livestock completely to feeding with compound feed is quite rare, since it usually acts as a supplement to the main diet. We propose to consider the question of what additives should be introduced into the diet of cattle using the example of the products of the Mustang Feeding Technologies company, which is the market leader in the field of premixes and other nutritional supplements for animals.
Combined feed
It is a mixture of herbal ingredients. Sometimes it includes elements of animal origin and vitamin and mineral supplements. For example, the compound feed for calves from Mustang Feeding Technologies (these are Kalvomyusli, Kalvofit Lux and Kalvofit) includes cereals, soybean meal, flaxseed, a vitamin-mineral complex, a bactericidal component, etc. Such a combined mixture promotes early scar formation, strengthens immunity, ensures high growth rates of calves and increases their safety.
Concentrates
This is an excellent addition to coarse and succulent feed, as well as to compound feed. The input rate is approximately 10-30% in combined feed. Concentrates from “Mustang Technology Feeding” consist of a premix and a protein part, and contribute to:
- eliminate the lack of crude protein;
- increase milk and meat productivity;
- lameness prevention;
- reduce the risk of acidosis;
- optimization of rumen fermentation, etc.
Premixes
This is the name of a mixture of biologically active substances, for which flour is used as a filler. They are in demand regardless of what classes of animal feed are mainly used in the farm. Their peculiarity lies in economical consumption: the input rate of premixes from “Mustang Technology Feeding” does not exceed 2%! The company produces separate lines for dry and lactating cows, which allows them to fully satisfy their needs in micro and macro elements, vitamins and amino acids at every stage of life.
Energy Supplements
Products have a narrow focus. For example, “Lactoneo” performs the prevention of ketosis, acidosis and lameness, fights against fatty liver syndrome. The task of Kaustart is to fill the lack of energy, normalize the functioning of the liver and reduce the number of ketone bodies.
As practice shows, no matter what class of animal feed you choose, having only the main types of feed solutions in the diet will not be enough. Compound feeds, premixes, concentrates and high quality energy supplements will help to increase the efficiency and profitability of the farm with minimal investment and effort!